A new form of deviance, or why I don’t have Internet on my phone

09Jun

I do not have internet on my phone simply because I do not need it! And when you think about it, most probably neither do you. In my work, I face a screen most of the day, so I am always happy to catch a break of not looking at one even if it is only during commuting.

Friends who are puzzled by this weirdness of mine wonder how I kill time when I am waiting in line, for instance, when I am travelling, I am on my one-hour train commutes to work, how do I check when the next train will be if this one is delayed, etc. Well, when I wait in line, I just wait patiently, listening to music, and entertaining myself with the annoyance and boredom of other stander-bys, hectic playing with their phones and pouffing. When I am travelling, for work or for pleasure, or simply commuting to work, I read. You know, like real books. Or e-books. I have read more than 20 since the beginning of the year. And I do not need to have urgent updates about where some of my friends are having lunch, or what the cats/children of others did yesterday. Nor do I need to be constantly stressed about reading, receiving and replying to work-related e-mails. Nothing is so urgent that it cannot wait a few hours. And for the urgent things, there are always telephones. As for the cancelled trains, well, there is an update and running announcements in train stations, there are information desks, etc. Never in these cases did I miss having an Internet access on my phone. And no, not even when I have to go somewhere (as a location I have not been to before). I can either look up the address I need to go to in advance and then test my orientation skills, or if I am in a foreign city, simply use good old maps. Whoever said women cannot read maps has met all the wrong ones.

If people are puzzled by me, I can say I flabbergasted by their behaviour. You can no longer have a discussion with friends without some diligent fact-checking taking place on thelephones. This kind of kills the point of heated, meaningful discussions (If you ever watched HIMYM, there is an episode there demonstrating exactly my point). Or, you often see a group of friends, at a bar, at a cafe, at a concert, at a club, and they are simply not talking to each other, but each of them is playing with their phones, updating their locations and feelings on all forms of virtual platforms, engaging in virtual conversations with online friends and ingoring those friends next to them. Call me old-fashioned but this is simply stupid. And the ridiculous part is that we have an access to the world in our hands and what do most people seem to use it for? Taking selfies, pointless updates, stupid self-obsessed photos, and look at videos of cats doing funny things. Now, how sad is this phenomenon of smart phones and stupid people. I’d be considered deviant in a heartbeat if addiction, self-obsessing, and lack of creativity is what I am getting in return. So no, I do not need Internet on my phone. And there are high chances that neither do you.